Kids Animated Movie Reviews Continued – Do they pass the Bechdel Test? Rating System 5 FAILS – 0 FAILS
Aladdin Thank you Disney for falling in line with and perpetuating Rape Culture. And by thank you I actually mean fuck you.
Jasmine (the only female character besides a few women seen primping in the harem and lusting after Aladdin) is treated to a nonstop parade of asshats that want to marry her, the assumption here is that she MUST marry a man (up with lesbian princesses now!). She clearly and repeatedly states that she does not want to marry until she experiences more of the world and yet she is continually bombarded with people insisting that she marry. At one point in the movie the evil wizard uses magic to place her in shackles and transform her outfit to be very skimpy. He then hits her in the face and declares that she will marry him. In the end she marries Aladdin EVEN THOUGH she still has not achieved her goal of experiencing more of the world, unless you count one shitty magic carpet ride as seeing the world.
FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL
Smurfs
wtf? Really, what is RIGHT with the smurfs? The whole show reeks from the get go. 99 boy smurfs and 1 girl smurf who isn’t even really a smurf until Papa Smurf fixes her with magic? There is one creepy episode where all the smurfs are trying to marry her INCLUDING Papa Smurf…Great, way to use your position of authority Papa. EW. Eventually she is forced to leave the village to get away from their importune advances and finally tries to placate them by saying that she can’t decide because she loves them all equally…
Back away slowly Smurfette, very slowly….
FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL
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I actually have a theory about Smurfette. She was originally created by Gargamel as a means to stir up trouble. I think it’s a “modern” retelling of the Pandora mythology meaning that life was good before women unleashed hell on earth. (Thanks, you misogynistic bastards..) At least, with the smurfs, she turns out to be a benefit to their society. (But barely.)
The imp in me also believes that that is the reason all the smurfs are ‘blue’ as well.
December 4th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
I’m so enjoying these posts.
December 4th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Whoa! We were just talking about this the other night!
Hey, dollin, could you join up on More Women
http://morewomen.ning.com/
so I can set you up with the “essential arousal oils” reviews? Oooo-la-la!
So good to see you at the party. You are fabulous.
xo Grace
December 5th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
“Jasmine … is treated to a nonstop parade of asshats that want to marry her, the assumption here is that she MUST marry a man … She clearly and repeatedly states that she does not want to marry until she experiences more of the world and yet she is continually bombarded with people insisting that she marry.”
Sadly, young adults I know in Chicago at this very time are subjected to this kind of bombardment. It’s a real-world truth. Maybe there is some message of value in the Disney story for these kids? Maybe at least some message of hope? I’ve not seen this movie so I don’t know, but I do know it’s usually hard to find good things to say about Disney movies in general.
December 6th, 2009 at 10:03 am
RJ: Who are these kids in Chicago?
I’m not sure I see much message of hope.
I think it’s possible Disney was trying to say that Jasmine, though forced to marry, was ALLOWEd to marry someone she loved in the end.
I have a book called ‘The Paper Bag Princess’ in which the princess’s castle is burned down and her betrothed prince is captured by a dragon. All her things are burned up so she wears a paper bag and she goes on an adventure to rescue the prince. When she finally gets to him he complains about how she doesn’t look like a princess. She tells him he is a jerk and runs off happily into the sunset alone.
That is more my kind of story.
December 8th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
“Who are these kids in Chicago?”
Over the years, and again recently for Thanksgiving, I get to talk with my niece and sometimes her friends. “Get married, make babies,” is what they get, what they are supposed to feel. Be a mom. And some of them are absolutely charmed with the idea of being a mom, to be sure. The people I get to talk with are fairly intelligent and seem mostly immune to the peer pressure and what pressure they get from adults, except it can be a hard life out there, and as I said, some of them are absolutely charmed with the idea of being a mom. Who isn’t?
But the pressure is out there, I guess. Though, admittedly, my sample size is spectacularly small.
‘The Paper Bag Princess’
“She tells him he is a jerk and runs off happily into the sunset alone…That is more my kind of story.”
Yeah, mine too! Thanks for the suggestion.
December 11th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Met you at the Bazaar Bizarre & tho I didn’t buy any spats, I DID ‘get it’…sign or not, so thx!
Snagged one of your signature stickers (which needs to be a tee, you’d sell a ton, themed for the holidays to my mother alone who wears the saucy Sylvia, “This is as merry as I get” sweats for ritual morning wear.
and wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and say how much I ‘lmao’ on this princess post. I’ve written much on this topic myself, esp. in our ‘All Things Girl’ series: http://www.shapingyouth.org/?p=4507
Also wanted to share a great subversive/sardonic kids coloring book called “Girls Are Not Chicks” (did a prequel here in this post about meaningful manga graphic novels for kids/Gandhi, Mandela etc. http://www.shapingyouth.org/?p=9375)
It’s now in my permanent baby shower gift bin! more on it here:
http://www.reachandteach.com/content/article.php/20091204143446972
Thx again for the smile…
December 20th, 2009 at 12:26 am